Stefan
for someone who is good at PP its quite possible to work around the images and come up with possible shapes and silhouettes.
I will send you some by mail and see if you come up with something nice, this is if you manage some free time. but I think it won't take long time to just quickly manipulate and then the rest is just colour manipulation.

I get stuck with cloning, erasing, sharpening etc,

I guess its time for me to invest in one of those WACOM tablets, I have been spending a long time now editing so I remember you advising me to get one. Any suggestions on which one to get? There are a few different versions isn't it? I want something good, reasonably priced though, well, something that good value for money. Recommend me some if you have an idea what's in the market at present.

Or i will dig up the link you sent me some few months ago, but if you still remmember the site or version of the tablet please let me know, its easier than digging out from old threads

Amin

Kris,
I have been thinking about one too, , so if you come across something that its worthwhile a look let me know please.
Certainly can't afford one which is expensive so hopefully we will find something reasonably priced. But like you I know nothing about it so will keep an eye on the thread to see if someone comes up with any ideas.
Thanks

Amin

Matt
been doing some experiments and just like you said, I can darken the background by playing out with the aperture settings and keeping the shutter at 180 given to me by the default settings. And also using the exposure settings to regulate it.

One question to then put this to rest and go into the shed next time and waste my K20 battery please, as this manual of the sigma is such a pain, let me see if I got this correct:

The setting on my Sigma flash which allows me to move 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc up to 1/64 relates to what please? Is this the time of the flash output? in relation to seconds? And does the intensity remain unaltered? (because I want the highest light output possible but keeping it on fraction of the time)
And if not how do I achieve that?

And the other setting I see the -0.5, -1, 0.0, +0.5 and 1.0 what exactly is this?

I can shuffle and achieve all the settings, its understanding what they stand for that now I am getting to grips with.

Cant stop mentioning how bad this manual of the sigma is. I am sorry if I am getting to someone's nerves with this but just wanted to get it out of my system .

Thanks again for all your help.

Amin

Magpie and the cat for me Mike, absolutely stunning.
And Sam's portrait stands out definitely. You achieved the lighting that just right for it. B&W definitely enhancing it further. And the posture and the expression couldn't just have been planned at all. Did you catch it in the spur of the moment as if you were about to tell him something and he turned his face towards you?

I want to learn to capture portraits like that , been waiting for my little ones to heal from their colds so that I dont catch them with the nostrils full of things that I will have to then spend hours PP,

Amin

Hi Matt
Thanks again for this. I see a long day in the shed probably tomorrow trying all these settings.
My problem in order to achieve what I want is that I am limited to the very low ISO. I want very little or preferably none of the noise if possible so would like to shoot at 100 ISO.

Also I want the intensity of the flash output to be as maximum as possible while as you mentioned keeping the duration as low as possible so that I can freeze the subject.

Last time I experimented with this I had to physically position the flash (in wireless mode) to the side of the subject, a few inches away but making sure that the background did not get any light at all from the flashgun. So basically I was literally working with the flash discharging the light partially towards the lens. I seem to be able to put up with that light as long as there is nothing going to the background which then ruins the setup.

Any more ideas or input for me to experiment would really be helpful, if you think of any. I am using the Sigma EF-530DG Super flashgun.

Reading one of the sites that someone experimented shooting the subjects they used a 2000W Bowen studio flash light. Aparently to make this work efficiently a lot of light is required.
Do you think anything close to this can be achieved with my flashgun? and as you say by bringing it to 1/32 and adjusting the exposure?

thanks

Amin

Thanks Matt.

I was thinking of bumping up slightly more the ss to shoot some smoke images. I
Aparently the other way would be to shoot in a darkened room.

This might be a really daft question so please excuse my total ignorance in this, but from what I read for example the ss for some of the hummingbird images taken is well above 180.

Can you please just help me understand a bit more about this?
thank you in advance


EDITED: My apologies Matt, I just read some details that have now given me the full idea of it . I should be able to get what I want at 180ss, just need to darken my shed a little
its here link

Thanks for that suggestion.
I have a Sigma EF-530 DG Super and have been knocking my head to try to work it wirelessly and in HSS. And still haven't managed.
Talk about reading the manuals, , and before someone tells me.. yes I have read the manual and been following it through, but still aaaaaaaahhhh can't get it to work.
I might be doing something wrong but not sure what it is. This sigma flash menu system is a total disaster. Its a great flash but whoever wrote this UI really did a lousy job.

I am quite well capable of using the flash wirelessly as slave, have been doing so quite efficiently, also manage to use the onboard flash as controller but just cant get the menu to hold at FP (HSS in sigma flash language).

Anyone please help if you have an idea. Thanks

Amin

Thanks Mike
I am glad I get thumbs up from all of you who have seen these smoke works.
I am extremely keen on exploring this area as I can lock myself in the shed and rather than waiting for the birds I can entertain myself burning some incenses .
This was my first batch and with the enthusiasm flying high after many hours of trying when I finally nailed the exact setup I so much got involved in smoking and triggering the incenses that I didn't even notice the texture of the background starting to appear in the images due to it sliding off and ruined most of the batch .

But I learnt the lesson and I am planning to go and lock myself again soon and set it up and shoot some more of this.

I have a huge bunch of them that looked so bleemingly promising but they all got ruined due to the background texture and getting light on it too. Its just a lot of trouble cleaning it off, worse still with me still being a disaster with PP

Mike, the term SDM sounds magic, truly, after experiencing that silent and fast focusing mechanism one really learns to appreciate it.
keen now in wantint to give it a spin.

You mean SDM function with the TC attached or just normal AF? And which TC is that?

Am dropping you a PM
Thanks
Amin